Download PDF
Nomadia > Case Studies > Optimizing Pharmaceutical Sales Force Activities: A Case Study of Pfizer Japan
Nomadia Logo

Optimizing Pharmaceutical Sales Force Activities: A Case Study of Pfizer Japan

Technology Category
  • Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Visualization
  • Sensors - Haptic Sensors
Applicable Industries
  • Healthcare & Hospitals
  • Pharmaceuticals
Applicable Functions
  • Facility Management
  • Sales & Marketing
Use Cases
  • Facial Recognition
  • Time Sensitive Networking
The Challenge
Pfizer Japan, a branch of the world's largest pharmaceutical company, was faced with the challenge of optimizing its sales force activities. The pharmaceutical industry employs medical representatives (MRs) who are key contacts between the industry and the medical profession. They are responsible for promoting their companies' major products directly to General practitioners (GP) and hospital doctors via face-to-face meetings or medical presentations. These representatives work in assigned territories, the size and geography of which vary according to companies. Most GPs and hospital doctors have an appointment system for seeing medical representatives. With many other companies trying to see the same customers, it was essential for the medical representative to be well organized and plan appointments in advance. Pfizer Japan was looking for a solution to reach a higher number of successful visits while lowering its cost, with the aim to cover almost all medical facilities in Japan.
About The Customer
Pfizer was founded by Cousins Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart in 1849. This pharmaceutical company has remained dedicated to discovering and developing new ways to treat disease and improve health for people around the world. Pfizer is now the world’s largest pharmaceutical company and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (PFE). Founded in 1953, Pfizer Japan has now more than 5,800 employees. The main activities of Pfizer Japan primarily involve manufacturing and sales of prescription and veterinary drugs for local and international markets. The company has more than 97,000 employees worldwide, 65 production sites, more than 200 research and development partners, and is present in 175 countries.
The Solution
Pfizer Japan adopted TourSolver, a Geographical Information Software, based on a successful deployment for Pfizer in Latin America. This software enables Pfizer’s representatives to understand, extract, and use the geographical content of their customer’s data. This allows both managers and sales representatives to visualize their current market coverage and plan their sales deployment. TourSolver provides the best routing and planning for all its medical representatives in Japan to meet a large number of doctors, nurses, and pharmacists every day. For instance, the Tokyo area, which has over 1,000 medical facilities, is covered by less than 10 medical representatives while respecting very restrictive requirements. Each medical visit should occur during a short 30 minutes time slot while also ensuring that the medical representative is knowledgeable of the product in which the medical facility is interested in. TourSolver also allows real configuration of operational costs, enabling Pfizer to balance the overall cost of its sales forces according to their distribution across the territory.
Operational Impact
  • The adoption of TourSolver has significantly improved the efficiency of Pfizer's medical delegates. It allows Pfizer to fulfill its medical facilities visiting quota while keeping regular working hours for its sales force. The large amount of optimization constraints within TourSolver, including visiting time windows, possible visit days, customer priority, and punctuality respect, helps Pfizer sales planners to be very flexible in allocating appointments to medical professionals while maintaining the target number of visits every day. Detailed cost calculation provided by TourSolver allows each sales strategist to estimate the overall cost of its sales forces. This gives higher management the opportunity to upsize or downsize the medical representative teams. As a result, Pfizer managed to respect its visits quota, increase its overall sales, and decrease its overall cost.
Quantitative Benefit
  • Reduced travel time for medical delegates
  • Increase in daily visits
  • Lower transport costs

Related Case Studies.

Contact us

Let's talk!

* Required
* Required
* Required
* Invalid email address
By submitting this form, you agree that IoT ONE may contact you with insights and marketing messaging.
No thanks, I don't want to receive any marketing emails from IoT ONE.
Submit

Thank you for your message!
We will contact you soon.